George Fernandes died Tuesday at 88-years of age. An ex-Army General remembers his time with him.
As a young Major deployed along the Line of Control (LoC) going to a meeting with George Fernandes in the late 1960s in Bombay (now Mumbai) was a known 'high-risk mission'. But my brother Vinod assured me that I would nevertheless be enthralled by his revolutionary oratory. I did go and emerged unscathed.
His oft-used phrase "peace of the graveyard" stuck with me.
My first personal meeting with George Fernandes was in the early 1990s. I had gone to him with a request to set up a meeting with then defence minister Sharad Pawar. Fernandes obliged and we became friends. After reading my case, Fernandes took me as his unofficial adviser on military matters as I had retired by then.
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